I am going to tell you about a rising new star you probably haven’t heard of: Marko Arapovic of Cedevita Zagreb, which has advanced to the Final 16.
But first, a few words on some familiar names who could be missing out.
Maccabi Tel Aviv won its sixth European Basketball title in 2014 (under David Blatt, you may remember.) Then last year, Real Madrid shook off a 21-year drought to win their ninth title, the most of any team in Europe.
With losses next

Among the 14 players selected in the 2014 NBA Draft Lottery, only Sixers picks Joel Embiid and Dario Saric have yet to play in an NBA game.
Embiid, the third overall pick, has been sidelined with a debilitating foot injury for the entirety of his NBA career, sitting on Philly’s bench in street clothes for a year and a half now. Saric, selected 10th by the Magic and then swapped for Elfrid Payton, has been in Istanbul in Andolu Efes colors,

So, two groups of Russians and a group of Spaniards walk into a bar—stop me if you’ve heard this one …
Sitting on one end is first Russian contingent, from CSKA Moscow, calmly sipping on warm vodka. They’ve had four, and they’ve yet to slur a word. They might have six or eight more before it’s all over, and if you ask them for their keys, they’ll shoot you a How dare you? glance before walking out when they damn well please and

In NBA circles, Jan Vesely is considered a bust. The Wizards took the athletic Czech power forward with the sixth pick in the 2011 NBA draft to catch lobs from John Wall and become part of a young core with tons of potential. It did not go according to plan.
He would notoriously airball his first NBA free throw attempt, and that set the tone for a rocky rookie year. He averaged 4.7 points and 4.4 rebounds in 19 minutes per

In the past, a handful of players have come over from Europe and made a big impact in their rookie seasons in the NBA.
Pau Gasol came from Spain to win NBA Rookie of the Year with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2002. Coming off two straight Italian League MVP awards, Manu Ginobili gave the San Antonio Spurs the extra push off the bench they needed to win the NBA title in 2003.
Luis Scola and Juan Carlos Navarro were immediate contributors as

Last season, the Adriatic League produced some of the top talents in the NBA draft, with Dario Saric, Jusuf Nurkic, Bogdan Bogdanovic going in the first round, and Nikola Jokic, Vasilije Micic and Nemanja Dangubic being selected in the second round.
While we likely will not see six more NBA draft picks this season from the Adriatic League, there is little doubt that with the rich basketball tradition in the former Yugoslavian countries, it is no surprise that again young talent

Which former first-round picks are trying to earn their way back to the NBA via Europe?
Gone are the days where being a first-round pick nearly guarantees at least a four-year NBA career, with several opportunities to produce before teams give up on you. With the new CBA, teams are cutting costs from every possible angle, and with many options for minimum salary players from the D-League and overseas developing, more and more first-round picks are finding themselves on the outside

Adding some small degree of excitement to what would have been a dull, mundane preseason game at the Barclays Center, the league conducted an experiment with the Celtics and Nets playing 11-minute quarters on Sunday.
In addition to the one fewer minute per quarter, there were two media timeouts in the second and fourth quarters instead of the normal three. The shorter 44-minute long game, the first one in NBA history, ended in a pleasant one hour and 58 minutes with the Celtics